Unfortunately, Scribes Wet Ink just didn’t work for me. I struggled to connect with the characters—they felt distant and underdeveloped, which made it hard to stay invested in the story. On top of that, the writing style wasn’t to my taste. It felt overly stylized at times, which pulled me out of the narrative rather than drawing me in. While the premise had potential, the execution left me disengaged. Just not a good fit for my reading preferences.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Goodreads.

1.5 stars rounded up.

I really really really wanted to like this book.

This was one of my top anticipated ARCs for this month, and I'm really sad that it didn't live up to the expectations and hopes I had for it. When I read the blurb for this one, it seemed like a really interesting concept, and that paired with the cover art made a really positive impression on me. I still think the concept has a lot of potential, and I can tell that the author has a powerful imagination that can create fun and interesting ideas and settings. I just wish the execution had been better.

There were a lot of weaknesses with this book. First of all, the plot used "telling" almost exclusively instead of "showing." As the reader, I was informed of characters' decisions, motivations, and experiences without being able to experience those things for myself or live through the character's thought process and development that led to their changes in opinions and motivations. I think I could have handled the "telling" a lot better if the characterization was more consistent. In many ways, it felt like the author wrote the story by imagining individual scenes and then pulling them together to make a novel. The characters' decisions made sense within the individual scenes, but the necessities of any given scene seemed to outweigh the character's overall personality and arc. The same character would be sassy and smart, cute and funny, or stoic and reserved based on the tropes and atmosphere of a given scene, which meant that the characters' personalities seemed to be in a constant state of flux. For me, that made it hard to relate to or connect with the individual characters since they never felt like fully formed people. In addition the macro level worldbuilding could have used more nuancing. I never felt like I ever fully understood the stakes or why the villains would choose to pursue the course of action that they did. The stated reason for the villains' actions seemed much more like a way to create a big evil entity for the characters to fight against than a real and present evil that I could see real people choosing to support in the real world, and that made it harder for me to take the villains seriously as threats to the characters. Finally, this book would have benefitted from more editing. The pacing was strange, and there were a pretty high number of spelling mistakes, line breaks in the middle of sentences or words, and randomly hyphenated words ("camp-us," "express-ions, "mat-erialized," etc.) that were confusing and distracting.

I am unlikely to continue reading this series, but I might try this author again in a few years when he's had a chance to better hone his technical writing to more powerfully communicate his ideas.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a breath of fresh air. As the first instalment, Scribes Wet Ink is paving the way to becoming a fantastical book series. With adrenaline-inducing action sequences, to provocative language perfectly setting up the scene to create an atmosphere of trepidation & anticipation of the future.

I love how Zane, our MMC, is a brainy guy and he has been caught up in a situation where he has no choice in the matter. He is authentically himself and is as loyal as they come. He is awkward at first but once he finds his footing, it is a treasure to watch him form into a strong, confident individual 🏹.

I actually cannot put into words the intricacies of the thought gone into the plot specifics, changes in POV, and the twists-and-turns in this book. A real gem is the sporadic use of personal monologue, allowing us a better insight into the internal processing of events from the characters perspective 📖.
These are the types of stories that make reading enjoyable and keep us, the reader, on our toes 😊 I can’t wait for the next instalment.

Many thanks to Victory Editing & NetGalley for a copy. All above opinions are uniquely my own.

(review posted: 08/05/2025)

Zane Cooper knew very fast that he wants to be a doctor and is doing all to succeed and be the best possible. One night while he wants to study for a very important exam to have a great grade, he is sucked into to book. Luckily a young girl who also was in the coffee shop helps him out of the book and tells him about his unbelievable gift. He is one of few who are able to travel within books. But this is not as great as it sound. There are two parties battling each other as they use the power they gain by their book travelling for opposite purposes.
Zane does not really believe all this but when strange men ask him during his exam to come with them he must accept that the organization Die Vater, is really the ruthless organization which is not stopping in their attempt to get him even when this means using weapons and hurting bystanders.


For me it is hard to rate this book. So I give it 2,5 Stars hence round up to 3 Stars.

The beginning was great. It was mysterious when we read how Zane is pulled for the first time into a book. The appearance of Ellie is well written and I like how tough she is, how good she handles the chase. The chase is really great written, lots of action, lots of things happen. This was really WOW!
So I was hoping that the book will proceed like this. Unfortunately this was not the case.
When they arrive in the Rabbit Hole I was hoping we learn more about Ellie and the group she works with. Instead lots of questions remain. Also that Zane is not asking for more background info, is not wondering more where his parents are, ... that I did not really understand.
Also that Ellie is accepting that somebody asked her so long ago to keep an eye on Zane but it is also not clear who was this and how this person knew that he might have the gift was strange to me.
Then reading about his education, how he gets to know the other living there, having arguments, ... reminded me a bit of a typical Academy setting. Here the pace with which the book started was lost to me.
At the end it gets interesting again when it is clear all is not what it seems and strange things happen around Zane but for me it came a bit too late.

The characters are OK but there are also a bit flat to me. I did not really get a deeper connection to them, often I was wondering why things get accepted where I would have thought they want more details, wonder why these strange things happen, ...

So all in all an interesting idea which started very well in my opinion but then the story was too slow for me, too many questions are still open, ..

I really enjoyed the descriptive writing and the worldbuilding of this book, however, I struggled with the actual dialogue of the characters and their relationships. I think I would read book two for sure, and I am looking forward to seeing how this author grows the story. 3.5/5

Scribes Wet Ink is an engaging and thought-provoking fantasy novel with a unique magic system that will captivate readers who enjoy stories of adventure, personal growth, and moral conflict.

I ended up DNFing this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I can't really put my finger on why. I should have loved it, but the writing style just didn't suit me. It was just a bit too contrived. The conversations were very stilted and didn't seem realistic.

That said, I feel that this book will definitely find it's niche, it just wasn't for me. There is some interesting worldbuilding with being pulled into books and the shadowy cabal that wants to capture the people who can do this.

I found this one a little difficult to connect with this one. I really enjoyed the opening chase... it was well-written and full of action and intrigue.

Once Zack was introduced I found that I wasn't really connecting with his character. He quickly discovers that he is a scryer and has a special kill of being able to travel into a story when he opens a book. The shock of his first adventure brings about a connection to a mysterious women who eventually saves him.

At the same time as Zack is discovering that he has a special skill and the world isn't at all what he thought... he learns the history.

The writing style changed a bit ... I thought the action scenes were great but the dialogue was a bit clunky.

Scribes Wet Ink by Conner Grey is that book. The story is so so good. I rated it 5 stars because I couldn't put it down for a second.